Mark Zuckerberg on Oversharing, Social Design and Facebook Revolutions

Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg has just finished a mammoth 70 minute interview at the eG8 Forum in Paris.

Speaking to Maurice
Lévy, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Group, Zuckerberg also answered
questions submitted by attendees and the public via (of course) Facebook.
Hosted by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, the eG8 summit has been thrashing
out the political digital agenda of the day ahead of the G8 summit of
world leaders tomorrow.

Here’s a summary of
what Zuckerberg said:

On how much
information is enough to share: Zuckerberg says that people
should choose their own boundaries. Some people are naturally more public. Ten
or 20 years ago, people would have been shocked at the idea of sharing their
lives publicly. Now new tools provide benefit on that. For example,
location – knowing who is around you is valuable but there’s a trade-off
against your privacy. Zuckerberg believes that people will find their own
balance.

Zuckerberg thinks that
people do a good job of choosing which companies to entrust with their data.

He
stated that the key reason that Facebook usurped Myspace was its emphasis on
real identities, although he noted that there was a role for anonymity online
too – Facebook just isn’t the company to provide it.

Zuckerberg sees
users sharing content and information online, and the development of new tools
to allow them to do that will be a key trend for the next few years.

On media going
social: Zuckerberg is clearly excited by the potential for media to become more
social. He noted that only four years after Facebook launched its developer
platform, social gaming leader Zynga is bigger than previous top gaming firm
EA. Now Facebook wants media to become more social too. The success of social
gaming shows that people do more of something if they can do it with friends.
Interestingly, he noted that movie ads – and media in general – do well on
Facebook.

Zuckerberg believes that letting everyone share their opinions can
help the best products rise to the top, improving the world for everyone as a
result.

Zuckerberg
identified e-commerce as another area that could benefit from Facebook platform
in future. Facebook doesn’t want to go into these industries itself, simply
providing the best platform for others to work with to make them social.

On ‘social design’: Zuckerberg talked
about the principle of ‘social design’ used at Facebook. For example,
friend requests have evolved from ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ options to ‘Accept’ or ‘Not
Now’. While essentially the same, Zuckerberg says the psychological difference
means that people are happier to reject friend requests now than in the days of
the ‘No’ option. This social design principle will be baked into a wide range
of products across a wide range of industries in the future – not just from
Facebook but many other companies.

On ‘Facebook
Revolutions’: Zuckerberg downplayed Facebook’s role in the
revolutions and uprisings in the middle east and North Africa, saying that it
would be arrogant for one technology company to take credit for what has
occurred.

Facebook was
“neither necessary nor sufficient” to trigger these movements, he said, and if
it weren’t Facebook it would be someone else. The ability to share their
opinions online isn’t a Facebook thing, it’s an Internet thing.

It’s wider than
just revolutions too, he believes, giving the example of leaders having pages
on Facebook, helping provide the public with greater access to those in power.

On children under 13
using Facebook: Zuckerberg clarified his thoughts on young people
under 13 using Facebook, something which is currently against the rules, after
it was recently reported that he had said “Under 13s should be on Facebook”. He
said that the legislation around minors using Facebook was too difficult to
deal with right now. He believes this legislation needs to be looked at in the
future, but the company has no plans to open up the site to under 13s, or to
address the issue itself, at the moment.

On mobile: While he stated yet
again that Facebook didn’t have plans to go into dedicated devices such as
‘Facebook phones’, Zuckerberg said that over the next 5 years there are going
to be way more people accessing Facebook through phones than on traditional
computers. He said that the company would have
“cool” announcements in the mobile space soon.

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The NextWomen is a community of Investors, Entrepreneurs & Advisers. We build formats to support the growth of female entrepreneurs -from
startups to companies making millions. We provide access to capital, resources and networks,
offering our community a support infrastructure critical for success. Join the community too! - See more at: http://www.thenextwomen.com/about-us/contributors#sthash.9GODHllB.dpuf

The NextWomen is a community of Investors, Entrepreneurs & Advisers. We build formats to support the growth of female entrepreneurs -from
startups to companies making millions. We provide access to capital, resources and networks,
offering our community a support infrastructure critical for success. Join the community too! - See more at: http://www.thenextwomen.com/membership/sign-up#sthash.0ApND3BW.dpuf

The NextWomen is
a community of Investors, Entrepreneurs & Advisers. We
build formats to support the growth of female entrepreneurs -from startups to
companies making millions. We provide access to capital, resources and
networks, offering our community a support infrastructure critical for success.